Carolyn on brazil

By CAROLYN CARY
Contributing Writer

I have just returned from an exciting trip to Brazil in which I enjoyed Sao Paulo, the fourth largest city in the world, Santo Andre, a city of 200,000 people just 20 miles from Sao Paulo, where I lived for a week, and Americana, also a city of 200,000 people.

Americana is the site of the Campo Cemetery, where Confederate soldiers who immigrated to Brazil after the War Between the States are buried.

The emperor, Dom Pedro II, had offered free land to the soldiers in return for teaching the Brazilian farmers a better way of doing things. As the former soldiers began to die, they were not permitted to be buried in the Catholic cemeteries and so they began their own in a community known as Americana.

Each year the direct descendants of the Confederados get together for a festival at the cemetery. They all belong to the "Fraternidade Descendioa," pay dues each year to keep up the cemetery and put together a very memorable program.

More than 1,000 people attended this year. I enjoyed the Brazilian barbecue, marinated chunks of beef on a stick; pastel, a deep fried pastry filled with ground beef, and of course Cokes.

A past president of the fraternity had died at 4 a.m. on the day of the festival. They do not embalm and so the festivities were cut short so that another direct descendant could be buried at CAMPO, joining hundreds of other "Southerners."

More next time.

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